Michael Whelan

Residents in a Kettering development are hoping to see the end of dangerous parking and poor maintenance by having their road adopted by the council.

The Poppy Fields development was completed about a decade ago but soon afterwards the development company, Barry Howard Homes Ltd, was wound up by the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and since then residents have been in limbo, living on roads which cannot be maintained by Northamptonshire County Council because they have never been adopted.

Carly Towns, who has lived in Poppy Fields for about eight years, says this means the road is now in a poor condition and that workers and patients of Kettering General Hospital use the road as a car park, often blocking pavements and parking dangerously.

Kettering county councillor Mick Scrimshaw has called for a meeting with the county council.

A spokesman for the authority said the roads cannot be adopted until they are brought up to a satisfactory standard of repair, as otherwise tax payers would foot the repair bill.

Barry Howard, the former chairman of Barry Howard Homes Ltd, said he has been battling RBS for years to get them to sort out the issue, and added matters have taken a step forward in recent months with the appointment of a chartered accountant who would be looking into the case to see if there are assets that can be used for repairs.

He added: “It has taken a lot of hard work but RBS seem to be now putting some money into trying to sort this out.”